About us
Why work with Uniseed?
Why work with Uniseed?
Uniseed is a venture fund operating at the Universities of Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney & New South Wales, and the CSIRO, with investment capital provided by the five partner research organisations. Our mandate is to facilitate the commercialisation of research ‘partner-generated’ intellectual property by targeted investment in highly promising technologies. Each year, Uniseed’s partner research organisations spend nearly $4 billion on research, making up over 40% of the total research spend at all research organisations in Australia.
Committed to our research partners
Unlike private venture capital funds, Uniseed is dedicated to the needs of its research partners, and committed to servicing them consistently over the long term, irrespective of the short term conditions in external capital markets. It works in very close partnership with the research partner commercialisation companies and staff, providing a valuable adjunct to the capabilities these companies and staff provide. They in turn provide a best-practice commercialisation service tailored to their respective organisations. These companies are able to leverage to great effect the scale of operation and expertise of the Uniseed network.
Commercial & financial discipline
The fund is run with commercial discipline, ensuring independence and financial rigor in its investment decision-making processes. Success is measured by a balance of return on investment (including the flow of funds for research to further the commercialisation of intellectual property generated within the research partner catchments), the establishment of viable start-up companies, the generation of research income for research partners and the improvement of partner commercialisation processes.
Successful commercialisation
Uniseed’s existing investments cover a range of technology sectors. To date, Uniseed has exited eight investments with four of these through trade sales; a neuropathic pain drug (Spinifex), a drug in development to treat fibrosis (Fibrotech), an IT security technology (Vintela) and a semi-conductor technology (Fultec) as well as three asset sales; a human headlice treatment (Hatchtech), a diabetes/NASH therapy (Vera), the treatment for Meniere’s Disease (Otifex) and an IPO on the ASX of a pain therapy (QRx Pharma). A number of companies have products on the market (Progel, BT Imaging, Smart Sparrow, Cardihab, Wildlife Drones) or are collaborating with leading global companies in the respective field.